Brockton campus still buzzing about women's team remarkable triple overtime championship victory completed with only four players left on the court.

Jim Fenton The Enterprise @JFenton_ent

BROCKTON – The Massasoit Community College women’s basketball team has given new meaning to the term “Final Four.’’Down to just four players late in the New England Regional championship game against Roxbury Community College on March 2, the last four women standing managed to pull out a remarkable victory.

So incredible was the feat accomplished after four of the five starters fouled out that the players left on the court – Ashley Andrade and Stephanie Goddard of Randolph, Cynara Rustin of Brockton and Arianna Gonsalves – heard about it all week long.

“People are still talking about how we did it,’’ said Gonsalves of the 98-95 triple-overtime win over Roxbury. “I just say we all put all our hearts together.’’

Said Rustin: “It’s been non-stop. Everybody is still talking about it. I still can’t believe it happened. I couldn’t sleep.’’

The top-seeded Warriors (16-6), after being 0-6 in previous regional championship games, are now bound for Rochester, Minn., for the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament starting Thursday afternoon.

Massasoit opens against two-time defending national champion Rock Valley College of Rockford, Ill., at 1 p.m.

Both Massasoit, which has an eight-player roster, and Roxbury, which has only six players, finished the marathon game shorthanded with a trip to the national tourney on the line.

The Warriors went 4-on-5 from a stretch of 11:30 during the 15 minutes over overtime and still survived. They gained an advantage when Roxbury lost three players to fouls, including two in a 12-second span in the third overtime.

Massasoit, trailing by seven points in that third extra session, took full advantage of the 4-on-3 situation and outscored Roxbury, 14-2, with a pressure defense and an up-tempo pace created by Andrade and Rustin.

The Warriors came from behind to become the program’s first team to reach the national tourney.

“I will never forget that game,’’ said Andrade, who was playing with four fouls. “It was the game of my life. It was all about the energy we brought and we just didn’t give up. It was an emotional roller coaster. We left it all on the court and we just pulled through at the end.

“This is potentially my last year playing basketball and this is it. You have to leave it all on the court.’’

That is what the four Massasoit players did after Fredi Lawson, Tianna Johnson of Brockton, Marina Palladino of Carver and Tiana McQueen fouled out.

The four players left on the court forced a second OT at 66-66 and a third OT at 78-78, then caught a break when Roxbury became undermanned.

“It was pretty crazy, pretty nerve-wracking being out there,’’ said Goddard. “You definitely need communication in that situation. It’s about having each other’s back.

“My mouth was super dry. I was grabbing a cup of water all the time. It was a lot of pressure. I’m not super religious, but during pauses in the game, I was saying, ‘Please, please.’ To go three overtimes and not get something out of it would have been hard.’’

Said Gonsalves, who rarely scored this season but came up with a clutch basket: “It was me and three other players who had the whole team on our backs. We had to do what we had to do. It was a great feeling. Nobody gave up.’’

Playing shorthanded is the way life can be at the junior college level where filling rosters isn’t as easy as it is at four-year colleges. This time, playing shorthanded came in the most important game of the season.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity game,’’ said Rustin, who scored 22 of her career-high 25 points after regulation. “Triple overtime, people fouling out. It was one thing after another. You always hope for a championship and the way it happened was just great. I’ll probably never live to see that again.’’

Jim Fenton may be reached at jfenton@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFenton_ent.